A new report from KPMG International and CB Insights shows that private funding flowed relatively freely into the fintech industry in 2015, feeding into an overall trend that has seen startups opt to stay private for longer.
So far, the only companies in possession of apps or programs with more than one billion active users are Google, Facebook, and Microsoft.
Amazingly, Google alone has seven of them: Search, Gmail, Maps, YouTube, Android, Chrome, and Play. The last of these to reach the one billion mark was Gmail, as per Alphabet’s announcement earlier this month during an earnings call.
Google also has the app that reached one billion users the quickest: Android did it in only 5.8 years.
Facebook also has three apps that can make the billion user claim. Facebook itself has the largest audience out of all of these apps, with 1.59 billion monthly active users. WhatsApp, which Facebook bought for $22 billion in October 2014, has also recently announced on its blog that it also surpassed the one billion user mark. This now fulfills a promise that Mark Zuckerberg made to Facebook shareholders at the deal’s outset.
Lastly, there’s Microsoft’s Windows and Office products, which are the only paid products that could crack the list. They took the longest to get there: 25.8 years and 21.7 years respectively.
Next year will mark a major milestone for ad spending, as total digital surpasses TV for the first time, according to eMarketer’s newest quarterly ad spending forecast. In 2017, TV ad spending will total $72.01 billion, or 35.8% of total media ad spending in the US. Meanwhile, total digital ad spending in 2017 will equal $77.37 billion, or 38.4% of total ad spending.
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A new version of Atlas, designed to operate outdoors and inside buildings. It is specialized for mobile manipulation. It is electrically powered and hydraulically actuated. It uses sensors in its body and legs to balance and LIDAR and stereo sensors in its head to avoid obstacles, assess the terrain, help with navigation and manipulate objects. This version of Atlas is about 5′ 9″ tall (about a head shorter than the DRC Atlas) and weighs 180 lbs.
The use of industrial robots is expected to grow exponentially in the future as their use leads to cost reduction, improved quality, increased production, and improved workplace health and safety. The global industrial robotics market is expected to reach $79.58 billion by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 11.92% between 2016 and 2022. The main drivers for this growth are the adoption of automation to ensure quality production and meet market demand, and the growing demand from small- and medium-scale enterprises in developing countries.
Digital flows—which were practically nonexistent just 15 years ago—now exert a larger impact on GDP growth than the centuries-old trade in goods, according to a new McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) report, Digital globalization: The new era of global flows. And although this shift makes it possible for companies to reach international markets with less capital-intensive business models, it poses new risks and policy challenges as well…
The amount of cross-border bandwidth that is used has grown 45 times larger since 2005. It is projected to increase by an additional nine times over the next five years as flows of information, searches, communication, video, transactions, and intracompany traffic continue to surge. In addition to transmitting valuable streams of information and ideas in their own right, data flows enable the movement of goods, services, finance, and people. Virtually every type of cross-border transaction now has a digital component…
Approximately 12 percent of the global goods trade is conducted via international e-commerce. Even the smallest enterprises can be born global: 86 percent of tech-based start-ups surveyed by MGI report some type of cross-border activity. Today, even the smallest firms can compete with the largest multinationals.
We identified 32 companies that are already applying machine learning techniques and predictive analytics to reduce drug discovery times, provide virtual assistance to patients, and diagnose ailments by processing medical images, among other things.
The 32 startups on the list have raised more than $530M in aggregate funding.
This year, New York-based AiCure raised $12.3M in Series A funding and National Science Foundation-grantee Cloud Pharmaceuticals raised a $350K round from undisclosed investors. London-based health services startup, Babylon Health, raised a $25M Series A round from investors including Google-owned DeepMind Technologies and Hoxton Ventures. The company will reportedly roll out a Siri-like voice recognition interface this year.
Smart money investor Khosla Ventures has backed 5 of the companies on the list: California-based Ginger.io, which focuses on patients with depression and anxiety; healthcare analytics platform Lumiata; California-based MetaMind and Israel’s Zebra Medical Vision, both of which apply AI to medical imaging; as well as drug discovery startup Atomwise.
The most well-funded startup on the list, Colorado-based health optimization platform WellTok, has collaborated with IBM’s Watson to provide personalized healthcare guidance to consumers.
Patient-monitoring startup, California-based Sense.ly, developed a virtual nursing assistant, Molly, to follow up with patients post-discharge. The company claims Molly gives clinicians “20% of their day back.” In drug discovery, startups like Atomwise, Numerate, and twoXAR are using machine learning to reduce the amount of time and capital involved in uncovering new therapies.
The Future of Mobility, Deloitte University Press:
Deloitte’s Center for the Edge argues that a new mobility ecosystem could spark a “virtual” value chain in which the ability to capture, aggregate, and analyze mobility-related data becomes a tremendous source of value. In this vision, value will accrete to those who:
Rewards could be great for players that are able to capture, analyze, and (securely) monetize the awareness of where people travel to, the routes they take to get there, and what they do along the way. While third parties will no doubt pay for access to this information, perhaps the greatest value will be realized by new entrants who emerge as “trusted advisers” to help all of us navigate the new ecosystem and increase our “return on mobility.” These companies may also enable the ecosystem to monetize new services and ownership models…
Every aspect of the modern economy based on the assumption of human-driven, personally owned vehicles will be challenged. Each company in this new ecosystem will have to determine where to play and how to win. As in any time of large-scale transformation, we can expect to see new players, with differentiated capabilities, emerge and change the fundamental dynamics of where and how value is created. Ultimately, the market, in its relentless quest for higher performance at lower cost, will decide who wins and who loses.
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The smart home market is estimated to grow from $25.38 Billion in 2015 to $56.18 Billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 17.2% between 2015 and 2020, while the assisted living market is estimated to grow from $1.20 Billion in 2015 to $3.96 Billion by 2020. The report aims at estimating the market size and future growth potential of smart home and ambient assisted living market across different segments such as products, services, and regions. The base year considered for the study is 2014 and the market size is forecast from 2015 to 2020. Growing geriatric population and rising demands for managed healthcare are expected to play a key role in fueling the growth of the AAL market in the next five years. Increased security and safety concerns, rising demands for energy savings, and low carbon emission-oriented solutions are driving the growth of the smart home market.
The smart home and ambient assisted living market comprises players such as Honeywell International, Inc. (U.S.), Siemens AG (Germany), Schneider Electric S.E. (France), Ingersoll Rand Plc. (Ireland), Legrand SA (France), ABB Group (Switzerland), Medic4all Group (Switzerland), Tunstall Healthcare Ltd. (U.K.), Chubb Community Care (U.K.), Televic N.V. (Belgium), Telbios (Italy), Vitaphone GmbH (Germany), GETEMED AG (Germany), Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Netherlands), CareTech AB (Sweden), and Assisted Living Technologies, Inc. (U.S.)
